Friday, October 30, 2009

Was Blind But Now I See

Oh hooray, my brown sock has been found!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

What Needed Doing talk to the pear

20091029_wcrpatch Sometimes you can form the days of your life from the outside, like making pears grow into little Buddhas; you clamp a mold around Tuesday and Wednesday, and an outline for a time travel screenplay, amazingly, pops out. I wonder what the failure rate is for Buddha-shaped pears, though. There must be some runty pears that never fill out into full-figured Buddhas, and others that overflow into Jabba The Hut pears. Because life sure isn't a bowl of serenely smiling pears. Well. Possibly the reason for this is that life is nothing like a pear. But pretend that it is! Pretend that it's just like trying to grow Buddha-shaped pears, and sometimes the pears don't turn out. Because that's how my life is. Because inside, the pear has its own instructions. Sometimes you can stop telling the pear what to do, and take instructions from the pear for a change.

So Tuesday night, it was very important to go to Broken Cherry and buy a WCR onesie for Baby Ameneh and a patch for my backpack. And then to make asparagus and black bean pasta salad alla zombea, but with half as much pasta and twice as much beans. Then to catch up from the weekend: make the bed, sort the laundry, sweep the floors. Then to wash my face, important! Oh skin, I am sorry that I've been so busy and falling into bed exhausted without washing my face, please heal up these two horrible blemishes and I promise that I will wash and exfoliate with baking soda day and night, and get the ultra-calming moisturizer with sunscreen again, and the crazy expensive revitalift night cream for a just few more years with no wrinkles, please and thank you. Then to pay bills for the month, and then I couldn't go to bed without sewing on my new patch. Though I was so sleepy I sewed shut the pocket that I was sewing the patch on & had to do it over.

Wednesday night, the pear walked me to Nina to look at bootie patterns and baby yarn. But my brain just folded trying to read knit 1, make 1, knit 14, make 1, knit 1, make 1, knit 14, make 1, knit 1... I mean, I can knit. I know I could sit down and figure it out; but something's got to give, like Monday night I had no idea, none, where I had parked the car, it wasn't in its usual place across from Pulaski Park and I retraced my steps grimly telling myself that if I didn't find the car by the time I had walked back to the apartment, I wasn't going to Orbit that night; but it was across the street from the apartment.

Then home to talk morosely with pit crew in the dark about losing my mind:

"So can I tell you something crazy? Like I have two jobs to do over the weekend, which are really four jobs that I paired up to seem like two jobs: Laundry & Cleaning, and Grocery & Cooking. And I know, I haven't actually done the laundry for a year now." You know who does the laundry, I am a lucky duck. "I just can't stop sorting the laundry, which you don't need me to do. I just ...like sorting laundry." And this is not, like, sorting laundry into two piles of lights and darks, this is me making little piles of all socks and all underwear and all leggings and all t-shirts all around the kitchen floor, because everybody knows that the laundry has to be organized before it gets mixed up in the washing machine. "And I'm so busy, I actually haven't been sorting the laundry & it's not hurting the laundry, and I almost could let it go just now. But I can't, because I can't have one job be Cleaning and the other job be Grocery & Cooking."

"Can you have three jobs called Cleaning, Grocery, and Cooking?"

"NO. I can either do 'Laundry & Cleaning' and 'Grocery & Cooking' or 'Cleaning' and 'Cooking'."

Pit crew thinks about taking a bus back to New Jersey.

"And I also know, I haven't actually done the grocery shopping for a year now. I just make the grocery list. Which maybe you need me to do?"

"I think I can handle the grocery list."

"I can show you where it is on my computer."

"Email it to me. I'm going to change it."

The pear frowns a frowny pear frown. "How are you going to change it?"

"I'm going to make it into a database."

Not just the frown, the whole pear turns upside down. Squee.

So I get up and make vaguely mexican beans, then go back out to drop off my t-shirt form and money at the practice space. Back home to eat vaguely beans, process and post yesterday's salutations photo, and it's already eleven and I wanted to write this evening. Email the grocery list to pit crew. Write this post falling asleep in bed, which how the pear got all up in this—

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Brown Rice and Tofu Scramble To Go

This is an easy scramble to make for lunches when you've eaten up all your leftovers & have nothing for lunches. Or if you're back from practice and insane with starvation, it's nicer to eat than the gross tofu salad that was destined for the garbage.

2 cups medium-grain brown rice
3 cups water

Combine the rice and water in a pot and bring to a boil, then turn heat to very low and let simmer for about thirty minutes. I pretty much just forget about it until I remember; then I turn off the heat and let it rest overnight, which softens anything that got burned on the bottom.

1 package extra-firm tofu
1 Tbsp olive oil
5 green onions, finely chopped
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Heat oil in the pan over medium heat. Add green onion and saute lightly, about 2 minutes. Stir in soy sauce.

Break the tofu into eight pieces, squeezing each piece until it's about half its original thickness, then loosely crumble it into the frying pan. Stir to combine with the onion-soy mixture and cook until heated through, about five minutes.

Divide the tofu into two takealong containers, and the rice into six takealong containers. This gives you two brown rice and tofu lunches, and four more brown rice containers that are ready to eat.

To serve, I heat up the rice in the microwave & have the tofu cold mushed up with the rice. That just made it sound really yummy, didn't it—

Per serving, 431 calories

Monday, October 26, 2009

How It Went not everything got done, survived

Okay so, the weekend is supposed to go like this:

SAT SUN
PLAY
WCR Bootcamp
PLAY
WCR Rioters
WORK
Laundry & Cleaning
WORK
Grocery & Cooking
HOBBY
Review & Plan
PLAY
Derby Lite
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
Choppers

Bootcamp was cancelled, I remember thinking that now would be a good time to put up the plastic on the windows & then I don't know where the morning went. I made red flannel tofu scramble for lunch. I believe I got some cleaning done. Around three, we went to pick up Zombea to get her makeup done for the Halloween skating party at Orbit. Shrimp costume pics TK! Then after the skating party, we went with Shannanigan to see Paranormal Activity. I hardly ever do movie reviews, so I will just say that it was hella scary. And then I got nabbed for running a red light going home, which I'm still upset about. I'm also upset about having lost one of my new brown socks. Crap like that, to me, is like when the seams start to show in the Matrix, and then I start looking around for my blue pills.

Sunday was my second Rioters practice, and it was hella hard. Whoever said that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger must have been talking about anaerobic training. From there I went straight to teach Derby Lite park district practice; and after that was done, the endorphins had kicked in and I was thinking, sure, I could go for another two hours of practice for six total straight hours. Nobody else thought this was a good idea. The tired hit me about two seconds into my drive home, I crawled on the chaise next to pit crew and told him how it all went in a low monotone. Then I got up and fixed some brown rice and tofu scramble to go, which is an easy scramble to make for lunches when you have nothing else; so, lunches got packed. Then pit crew went out and brought back Choppers, and we settled down to watch Natural Born Killers, which I had never seen, and I will just say that it wasn't what I expected.

So really it went like this:

SAT SUN
PLAY
???
PLAY
WCR Rioters
WORK
Cleaning
PLAY
Derby Lite PD
PASTIME
Halloween Skating Party
WORK
Grocery & Cooking
PASTIME
Paranormal Activity
PASTIME
Choppers ft.
Natural Born Killers

Can catch up tomorrow night. Want to do more during the week than just catch up from the weekend.

Friday, October 23, 2009

The Gift of the Magi

So you know I have been making tofu six ways to Sunday the past month or so, and pit crew bellies up and says yum every single time. So when he cooks, I eat whatever he makes & he pretty much makes one thing, pasta with meat sauce. So every week, I belly up to pasta with meat sauce and say yum. But Wednesday I come home & I can see that it's not meat sauce on the stove. What is it? It is cellophane noodles with tofu, carrots, and red bell peppers in sweet and sour sauce! Like little perfect cubes of tofu dusted with cornstarch and fried till golden. I was like, how did you know how to do that? And he's like, I googled it—

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Fall Back reculer pour mieux sauter

Everyone loves fall with its burst of colors and crisp weather, and who doesn't love fall clothes. I love fall, too, I do. It's just that I've had problems with fall, historically, and actually at first I didn't even know that fall was my problem, I thought my problem was winter...

because on the one hand, you have the seasons:

SPRINGSUMMERFALLWINTER

and on the other hand, you have the quarters:

JFMAMJJASOND

This is the truth, I had it in my head through my late twenties that OND = winter and then would spend the first three months of the new year feeling flummoxed and betrayed that there were somehow three more months of winter. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN EVERY DAMN YEAR.

James Taylor helped me with this. Now I sing "winter, spring, summer, and fall" to myself as a reminder.

Well you know, hate winter and the world hates winter with you. Hate fall, and you hate alone. But I don't, I don't hate fall. I just have a problem with fall. Which is like being the person who has a problem with Labrador retrievers. Which I don't! Have a problem with Labrador retrievers!

But the truth of the matter is, I get visibly frayed going into Thanksgiving and fall apart in earnest around Christmas; but then Monday after New Years Day, I'm all right again. It's been six or seven years running like this, I'm just saying. And it's starting already this year; it's like how Target keeps putting out the Christmas things earlier and earlier every year, I guess head elf just wants to get a jump on hanging up the crazy.

Okay but, I know what it is. It's the holidays, stupid. (Not you.) And it's started earlier the past few years because I actually started to do Halloween. So far I have been a mummy and a s'more, and this year I'm going to be a shrimp if it all works out & if not I'm going to be Poppy Herman, more about that in a minute. So there's just more to do at the end of the year, and this year is busier than ever.

It's like when Laura Ingalls was pocketing pebbles on the shore of Lake Pepin, and the pocket tore out of her dress. Only dude, the pocket tears out of your mind. Well now, that's food for thought. There probably is something good about trying to pick up as much as you possibly can, man's reach should exceed his grasp or what's a heaven for. Also there's probably something not totally bad about getting the pocket torn out of your mind, at least a few times in your life.

Okay, but. Seriously. People have to live with you. Not that people weren't living with you before, but look how that turned out.

Pick your pebbles, Munt.

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
PLAY
WCR Rioters
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
PLAY
WCR Bootcamp
WORK
Grocery & Cooking
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
WORK
Laundry & Cleaning
PLAY
Derby Lite
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
WORK
Office
HOBBY
Review & Plan
PASTIME
Choppers
PLAY
WCR Yoga /
MOD Skate
 
do what
 
needs doing
PLAY
WCR Speed /
Derby Lite
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 

Tuesday night what needed doing was, well first, to lie down in bed for a little while, talking to pit crew in the dark. It's just nice to be horizontal and awake, as opposed to being horizontal and asleep or, you know, horizontal and being horizontal. Also geez when pit crew lived in New Jersey, we had twice-a-week phone dates & we thought we'd have so much more time together when he moved here, but look at the schedule! And when we aren't busy and just hanging out, we're with friends or watching TV together, which is like whoa and great, but anyway, talking in the dark is like our old phone dates, except that we can hold hands. Okay anyway, then what needed doing was to make an insanely hot garlic and ginger soup because he has a cold. Recipe TK, totally vegan! And then, I absolutely had to start on my shrimp costume. About which I will only say for now, I set a land speed record for lowering my expectations.

Wednesday night it was talking in the dark, and then making creamed broccoli soup. And we are now out of butter! Earth Balance margarine, ahoy. And sending pit crew out for ping pong balls and pink bendy straws. And having a quiet moment to write by myself; that needs doing sometimes, too. And eating the Hostess fruit pie that he came back with. And thinking how to do without the ping pong balls, which he reported back that Kmart only had in a bucket of 32. Laundry to be folded, eyeballs and antennae and extra little arms to be fabricated—

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

A Month of Salutations and Squat Thrusts: Week Threeish

20091021_salutationsIt really works to set a time limit on an exercise initiative, I am flagging because I actually am getting a lot of extra exercise in WCR practices and not in my usual underachiever style. And then I look at my calendar and think, it's only two weeks to go... don't lame out now... and it's not like it's gonna hurt to stretch... actually, it does...

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Orange Calico Tofu Scramble

20091017_orangecalico

For the calico:
1 potato, scrubbed
1 sweet potato, scrubbed
2 Tbsp olive oil

Something-something:
1/2 red bell pepper, diced

Microwave the potatoes for three minutes, then dice them; you don't even have to peel the sweet potato. Heat oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat, then add potatoes and beets to the pan. Toss to coat, then cover and cook for 10-15 minutes. Uncover, add the red pepper and toss again, and cook for another 10-15 minutes until browned. Put the calico on a plate and keep warm.

For the tofu:
1 package extra-firm tofu
1 Tbsp olive oil

Still have some green onions left:
5 green onions, finely chopped
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Heat oil in the pan over medium heat. Add green onion and saute lightly, about 2 minutes. Stir in soy sauce.

Break the tofu into eight pieces, squeezing each piece until it's about half its original thickness, then loosely crumble it into the frying pan. Stir to combine with the onion-soy mixture and cook until heated through, about five minutes.

Per 1/2 recipe, 464 calories

Monday, October 19, 2009

Underachiever Chex Mix

I've been spending a fortune on chex mix from the shop downstairs, which I can't really afford. But also I can't be buttering my own chex mix every weekend, it's just not going to happen. Just like my gear isn't going to get washed if I can't throw it into the washing machine, and nobody wants that. And also I can't make myself eat an apple for my afternoon snack, I tried all last week and DO NOT WANT. Want something salty and crunchy that I can wash down with a Diet Coke.

So basically, I just throw a handful of each of the following into a bunch of containers. It's chex, it's mixed, what more do you want—

1/4 cup wheat chex
1/4 cup corn chex
1/4 cup mixed nuts
eight or so sourdough nibblers

Per serving, 313 calories

Friday, October 16, 2009

Derby Mezuzah

20091014_mezuzah

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Survey Says

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
Plain silk. Very vanilla silk and chocolate silk are very good frozen into popsicles, too.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
French silk apple upside-down bread pudding with cashew cream (this started out as french silk toast and now has a life of its own, and its own post office box, and is learning how to drive the car), tofu scramble alla Helsa, stewed green beans with seitan in my crock pot.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Salt and pepper.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
When I tried adding peanut butter to ramen noodles? Also lately I have been making everything too hot.

5. Favorite pickled item?
Kimchee!

6. How do you organize your recipes?
As Christopher Wren said, circumspicere.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
Trash elf.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
Rice, tofu, and kimchee.

[ETA: I answered this question very seriously: rice for carbs, tofu for protein, and kimchee to keep me from getting scurvy & also kimchee goes with the rice and the tofu. I just realized, though, that these are the exact three answers that my dad would have given. Yiiiii. I really am turning into my dad, just like in District 9 aaah.]

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
Spreading peanut butter on one slice of bread after another, teeth sinking into the peanut butter and the bread. No wait, that was last Tuesday—

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
Frozen juice or silk popsicles.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
Can I say trash elf again?

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
If you've read King Lear, you know that the answer is salt!!

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
My Fannie Farmer cookbook, which was my first cookbook, and my mom's Betty Crocker cookbook. And I actually only own one other cookbook, The Cake Bible.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Bonne Maman cherry preserves.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
I got into vegan cooking for my vegan friends, you know? I have no plans for vegan world domination. Though I did bring this spicy black bean coconut soup from Girlie Girl Army to Pom's chili cookoff, and I made it so too hot. People were going around daring each other to try that number five, they sure weren't thinking about it being vegan—

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
I've only ever had tofu, but I'm going to try seitan soon.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Weekend breakfasts.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Unopened two-gallon container of water from last winter when the pipes froze, retired Brita pitcher, neverused Rubbermaid pitcher, salad spinner, seltzer siphon, paper towels, stray napkins from takeout orders.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Coffee, chicken parts, one or two popsicles.

20. What’s on your grocery list?
Coffee, plain silk, lowfat plain yogurt, sliced almonds, medium grain brown rice, extra-firm tofu, hummus, tortillas, apples, peanut butter, whole wheat bread.

21. Favorite Closest grocery store?
Jewel.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
Well, I had replaced the meatless grounds in the original pasta alla Helsa recipe with ground turkey & now I'm about to take out the turkey and put in scrambled tofu instead. Ah, the circle of life.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
101 Cookbooks, Cake Wrecks, and I just added It Ain't Meat, Babe because just that cracks me up.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
I really don't eat candy, too sweet!

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
I seriously spend a fortune on bananas from the shop downstairs. Not very economical to buy bananas one at a time, but I only like perfectly yellow bananas. What. Brown bananas are gross!

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
What, you mean like fresh vegetables? I ain't scared, I'm just lazy differently prioritized.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

A Month of Salutations and Squat Thrusts: Week Twoish

20091014_salutationsThe long rays on the suns, by the way, represent squat thrusts, and the short rays represent tricep pushups. So we have a couple of happy but bald suns hanging out this week and also a skull and crossbones over on Sunday, what's that about?

Well, remember how I was talking about waiting for the elephant in the room to exhale? That's the elephant. That is to say, the skull and crossbones is the Windy City Rollers. Which Sunday I tried out for, and I am in!

After which I had a Derby Lite practice to lead later that afternoon; and so the suns are bald because I've been too sore for squat thrusts and tricep pushups, because pretty much only my head and my forearms didn't hurt after all that—

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Red Flannel Tofu Scramble

20091012_tofu-redflannel

For the potatoes:
1 potato, scrubbed
1 beet, scrubbed
2 Tbsp olive oil

And this time for the something-something I used:
beet greens, roughly chopped

Microwave the potato and the beet for three minutes, then dice the potato & peel and dice the beet. Heat oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat, then add potatoes and beets to the pan. Toss to coat, then cover and cook for 10-15 minutes. Uncover, add the beet greens and toss again, and cook for another 10-15 minutes until browned. Put the flannel on a plate and keep warm.

For the tofu:
1 package extra-firm tofu
1 Tbsp olive oil

Instead of the 1/2 onion I used:
5 green onions, finely chopped
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Heat oil in the pan over medium heat. Add green onion and saute lightly, about 2 minutes. Stir in soy sauce.

Break the tofu into eight pieces, squeezing each piece until it's about half its original thickness, then loosely crumble it into the frying pan. Stir to combine with the onion-soy mixture and cook until heated through, about five minutes.

Per 1/2 recipe, 403 calories

Monday, October 12, 2009

Vegan Until Dinner

I just read an interesting thing about Mark Bittman, whom I love: the man who's vegan until dinner. I did not know that. I wonder if I could be, like, the girl who's vegan in her own kitchen, except for yogurt, and except for whatever pit crew cooks on his kitchen night, and who still sometimes has meat and dairy when eating out, but is pretty much over eggs altogether.... What. Not as catchy? I'm liking being a part-time vegan, though. Naturally I would, I always said that if I had a religion it would be Cafeterian. In all things, I like to pick and choose. I like to negotiate complexities: animal rights, environmentalism, my own history of using food to assert control and the dangers of a full-blown eating disorder therein and is this "veganism" a trope of that, my crazy blood sugar doubled with skating being a high-intensity exercise, la la la.

It is not a joke that I need protein, and luckily my body does a pretty good job telling me what it needs & to give credit where credit's due, I do an okay job listening. Anyway I have been ideating about tofu the way a normal person wants cupcakes, and actually I had some oatmeal with dried fruit for breakfast & the dried fruit was too sweet to me. Really, I can't even have dried fruit? But I've been protein unbalanced, I haven't officially given up chicken but haven't been eating eggs or chicken. As it seems illogical to not eat eggs but to boldly go and eat chickens, except maybe as a concrete riposte to which came first, the chicken or the egg.

So I had speed practice the other night, and went to bed starving. And I couldn't sleep, because seriously my butt would not stop itching. I leaped out of bed around midnight and seized upon an apple, which I knew I did not want. Besides I am a horrible princess about apples & it wasn't crisp enough, it was supposed to be for french toast this weekend; I flung it into the trash. I grabbed a failed tofu salad experiment still in the fridge, frantically mushed it up in a bowl with some leftover rice, and practically ate it up with my face in the bowl. I may actually have been insane with hunger. I mean, I felt sanity return after I had eaten. And my butt stopped itching. Which makes me think, was my body trying to consume itself? Because my butt is the meatiest part on me...

Friday, October 9, 2009

Junky Styling: WANT

Though given that I woke up at 4:30 AM worrying about money, I should perhaps call a moratorium on that word.

Nevertheless. Junky Styling: Wardrobe Surgery

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Ariadne Unbound

The funny thing is, I thought I knew what Ariadne's thread was, but just to be sure, I googled it —what on earth did we ever do without Google, or for that matter, Wikipedia, we had writer's block is what— and quick-skimmed named for the legend of Ariadne, is the term used to describe the solving of a problem with multiple apparent means right, that's what I thought, solving a problem all at once, and sailed on with my argument, because it fit with what I wanted to say about how you work all the threads at the same time, because who this character is gives you a clue about what this character will do, which is plot, and at the same time what happens in the plot drops hints about your characters, and all around the web like that.

Just so you know that I know, Ariadne is the one who gave Theseus the ball of thread to wind through Minotaur's maze, and Arachne is the one who had the spinning contest with Minerva and got turned into a spider:

AriadneArachne
threadyesyes
mazeyesno
webnoyes

But anyway, I actually got around to reading the rest of that sentence:

of proceeding - such as a physical maze, a logic puzzle, or an ethical dilemma - through an exhaustive application of logic to all available routes. It is the particular method used that is able to follow completely through to trace steps or take point by point a series of found truths in a contingent, ordered search that reaches a desired end position. This process can take the form of a mental record, a physical marking, or even a philosophical debate; it is the process itself that assumes the name.
...well, that's not what I meant at all. I've a good mind to edit this right now. No no, I won't. Remember that about Wikipedia, though. That I could.

In any case, it fits with this other thing that I want to say about writing it all down. Did I ever tell you that my dad used to count the microwave popcorn kernels that didn't pop & plot them on a graph? The ear doesn't fall far from the stalk, is all I'm saying. Not to be corny.

But anyway I wrote this all inadvertently, when I meant to write about whether I'm going to write this fall.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

A Month of Salutations and Squat Thrusts: Week One-ish

20091007_chalktalk1. Stand in mountain pose
2. Forward bend
3. Look up, flatten your back
4. Walk yourself out to a plank
5. Five half tricep pushups
6. Lower yourself down for chaturanga
7. Peel yourself up for upward dog
8. Curl your toes under for downward dog
9. Lunge your right foot between your hands
10. Warrior I
11. Warrior II
12. Back for the reverse
13. Warrior III
14. Cartwheel your hands down to the floor
15. Extend your right foot back and up
16. Lunge your right foot between your hands
17. Come up for tree pose

Repeat leading with your left foot.

Then, ten squat thrusts. Squat thrusts are also known as burpees. So much easier to do them after I've warmed up with salutations. I just can't jump around like that right out of bed.

Sorry about the lack of detailed instructions, in this and in general when I write about fitness. Writing instructions is hard! And really, you need pictures for yoga & I am not ready to have pictures of myself in a leotard on the internet. These are just cheat sheets, they sort of assume that you have a working knowledge of yoga and/or skating & if you don't, you probably want somebody to teach you in person—

Tofu and Potato Scramble

20091003_potato-tofu This is my new ultimate skating breakfast: potatoes for carbs, tofu for protein. They're really delicious together, who knew. I got the potato-nuking trick from Easy Breakfast Potatoes and the tofu-squishing trick from The Ultimate Scrambled Tofu.

For the potatoes:
2 potatoes, scrubbed
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 celery ribs, finely diced

But you could also use a little bit of whatever something-something you have on hand, like a bunch of parsley, chopped, or half a bell pepper, finely diced.

Microwave the potatoes for just three minutes, then dice them. Heat oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat, then add potatoes and celery to the pan. Toss to coat potatoes in oil, then cover and cook for 10-15 minutes. Uncover and toss again, adding any herbs at this point, and cook for another 10-15 minutes until browned.

You can do this in a separate pan from the tofu, but I have this awesome cast iron pan that nothing sticks to; so now I set the potatoes aside and use the same pan for the tofu. I suppose you could scramble it all together, but I feel like the tofu would get the potatoes wet at this point.

For the tofu:
1 package extra-firm tofu
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Heat oil in the pan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until slightly carmelized, about 5-10 minutes. Stir in soy sauce.

Break the tofu into eight pieces, squeezing each piece until it's about half its original thickness, then loosely crumble it into the frying pan. Stir to combine with the onion-soy mixture and cook until heated through, about five minutes.

And now I put the potatoes back in the pan like in the picture, and let them heat back up for about five minutes before serving. Then I scramble the tofu and the potatoes together on my plate to eat them, but that's not as pretty and probably bad table manners—

Per 1/2 recipe, 554 calories

Monday, October 5, 2009

Permission

Yesterday I had a nice talk with my nemesis, whom I haven't seen in a while. She said that she'd given herself permission to not skate for a month & as soon as she did that, she didn't not want to skate anymore; so she worked some things out, and there she was.

I'm leery of giving myself permission, because I worry about being too permissive with myself. But I remind myself that it's the way of the world that it's the people who possibly don't have anything to worry about who do, and the people who probably do who don't. And if you're worried about having the wisdom to know the difference, it's the same as being the kind of guy who always thinks that girls are into you or who never thinks that girls are into you: you just push yourself a little bit toward being the other kind.

For me, it's not skating but writing that I might need permission from. Maybe even not that I need permission from writing, but that I need permission to do some housekeeping around here. The windows have to be covered with plastic for winter, and the refrigerator could stand to be cleaned. And also, fall is rife with holidays: I have to make my Halloween costume, I'm going to WFTDA Nationals in November and to Michigan for Thanksgiving, and probably having a nervous breakdown for Christmas. Though if I set my permissions correctly, I could maybe have peace on earth instead—

Friday, October 2, 2009

Fashion FML and Fall Plan

So I seem to have gotten started on the project of photographing all my clothes, because I have a hole in my head. I was just excited about my new fall skirts! Then as long as I had the tripod set up, I took pictures of my pants. Now when I look into my closet, I see a to do list of unphotographed clothes.

I do think it's a lifesaver sometimes to post a photo or a poppydoodle instead of putting together words, words, words. But I always forget that preparing images also takes work, and the advantage of writing is that you can do it wherever and whenever. Whereas a photo shoot is going to take up my Saturday afternoon.

On the other hand, I would sort of love to see all my clothes laid out like playing cards. Maybe if I just do my work clothes...

Anyway, this is my fall fashion plan for work:

Monday: Dress pants
Tuesday: Dress skirts
Wednesday: Casual pants
Thursday: Casual skirts
Friday: Jeans

I really wanted these orange Old Navy cords, and also in gray, for casual pants Wednesday, but I was too busy to shop and now they don't have them in my size anymore. I can do without, it's not like I didn't recycle the same three pants and two skirts the whole first three months at my job. I mean, the reason I need a fashion plan is to shame myself into not wearing the same damn clothes day in and day out.

Stop me though, before I do this: Days of the Week Tags on Living Locurto, via Lifehacker. It's not that I don't love them, just don't... just don't get me started.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Screenplay Fail

And also after eight straight weeks of la la la look at me sitting down to write like it's nothing, I got just that this week. Nothing. Eh, it happens.

As it happens, I'm waiting for this elephant in the room to exhale & it's actually taking quite a bit of energy to not think about how long an elephant can hold its breath. So though I'm not apparently thinking about anything, I can't think about anything else. And I hate to be cryptic, but I also can't talk about it right now. But don't worry, it is trivial and has nothing to do with knock knock jokes of any kind.

Anyway I hugely believe in ebb and flow, and that to everything there is a season turn, turn, turn & a time for enterprises of great pitch and movement, and a time for giving up on making vaguely beans for dinner and going out for beer and Chinese food. And for tossing the coins and leafing to the page in the Wilhelm edition of the I Ching where I will be told:

Strength in the face of danger does not plunge ahead but bides it time, whereas weakness in the face of danger grows agitated and has not the patience to wait.

And also:

We should not worry and seek to shape the future by interfering in things before the time is ripe. We should quietly fortify the body with food and drink and the mind with gladness and good cheer.

That means chex mix, right? I think it means chex mix.